Peter Sauber has put the first stage of his succession plan in place by transferring one third of the shares in his Formula 1 team to CEO Monisha Kaltenborn, citing the desire to retain “continuity” for the Hinwil outfit into the long term. Indian-born Kaltenborn has been with the Hinwil-based outfit for over a decade having initially joined to head up its legal department but has was given a front-line chief role by Sauber when the veteran retook control of his eponymous team at the end of 2009 following BMW’s sudden pull-out, becoming Formula 1’s first female chief executive. Sauber More…

The Spanish Grand Prix was a perfect example of how a race can be won or lost on the finest of margins and on a good or bad strategy decision. Pastor Maldonado beat Fernando Alonso and won the race for Williams due to planning and to a good strategy call half the way through the race, while Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen again had the car to win, but was a fraction off due to race strategy and conditions and he ended up third. There were several key moments and decisions which decided the outcome of this race. The main one was More…

[Updated] Everyone who follows F1 knows that Ferrari have shown extraordinary level of support to Felipe Massa in the last two and a half years. The little Brazilian almost won the world title for them in 2008 and would have done if they hadn’t lost him a win in the Singapore GP by leaving the fuel hose attached at a pit stop. After his accident in Hungary 2009 they again stood by him, helping him back into the car for 2010. But now, with such a tight field at the front in F1, the signs are that their patience is More…

Williams F1 Team has released a further bulletin on their staff members who were injured in yesterday’s pit garage fire after the team won the Spanish Grand Prix. “Following yesterday’s fire which occurred in the team’s garage after the Spanish Grand Prix, Williams F1 can confirm that a further two team members have now been released from hospital and have returned home having received treatment for smoke inhalation. “One member of the team remains in hospital in Spain having suffered burns in the incident. He is stable and will return to the UK within the next 48 hours to receive More…

Pastor Maldonado’s victory in yesterday’s Spanish Grand Prix as well as strong showings from Grosjean in the last two races and from Sergio Perez in Malaysia is highighting an important point about F1 and the relative state of the drivers. Do we often not give enough credit to the drivers in midfield cars? For years F1 races have been won by an elite of drivers from top teams with perhaps only 7 drivers managing to visit the F1 podium in the course of an entire season. In five races this season, we’ve already had 9 drivers on the podium and More…

Pastor Maldonado secured the first victory of his career at the Circuit de Catalunya and gave Williams their first victory in 132 races but there were a number of good performances all the way down the field. So who was your driver of the day? Pastor Maldonado Wasn’t really on the radar in the Friday practice sessions, however the team could see that the race pace was strong. Showed good pace in final practice on Saturday to lead many drivers to suggest Williams would be strong in the race. Kept a cool head to comfortably make it into Q3 and More…

[Updated] The FIA is likely to discuss with teams a review into the storage of fuel and the high voltage KERS systems as well as other potentially hazardous materials after a fire broke out in the Williams garage, an hour after the Spanish Grand Prix finished. The Williams team was celebrating its first win since 2004, with Sir Frank Williams in the garage and team members as well as media present having just done a celebratory photograph. The garage was quickly evacuated, but the fire took hold quickly and the garage was gutted. Thick plumes of acrid smoke poured out More…

Pastor Maldonado gave Williams its first F1 win since 2004 with a brilliantly judged victory in the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona, ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen. It was Maldonado’s first win in his 24th Grand Prix start and the first for a Venezuelan. He is the fifth winner and car combination in five Grands Prix, the first time that has happened since 1983. “We are getting better race after race,” said Maldonado. “This is a dream for Venezuela and a great moment for our country.” Maldonado started from pole position after Lewis Hamilton More…

Lewis Hamilton has been excluded from qualifying by the FIA race stewards in Barcelona. It means that he will have to start tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix from the back of the grid. Hamilton had 1.3 litres of fuel in the car on his cool down lap when the McLaren team told him to switch off the engine. The rules say that a car must have 0.5 litres for a sample, plus enough to get the car back to the pits, which is around 2.5 litres on this track. McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh had said that he felt the team would More…

Lewis Hamilton couldn’t believe his luck in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, as not only did he take a dominant pole position, but his main rivals for the win all tripped up in one way or another. However his luck changed after the session as the FIA Technical delegate reported him to the stewards for a fuel quantity irregularity after he stopped out on track on his cool down lap. Tyres were again the dominant story, as teams tried all manner of curious strategies to give themselves the best chance in the race. Sebastian Vettel looked good in practice More…

It’s going to be a very closely contested Spanish Grand Prix, with McLaren looking like the pace setters but Red Bull and Mercedes there on qualifying pace and Lotus right right there on race pace, judging from today’s practice sessions. Jenson Button set the fastest time in Friday’s second free practice session, ahead of Vettel’s Red Bull and Rosberg’s Mercedes, but it was the performance of the Lotus cars of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean (5th and 6th today), which caught the eye on the long runs. They both managed long runs on the soft Pirelli tyre which were both More…

Ferrari will benefit from a more powerful fuel at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix after partner Shell developed a new blend of its V-Power mixture. Engine development may have been ‘frozen’ in Formula 1 for several years but fuel is one area where improvements can still be made by the technicians of the various fuel companies involved in the sport. Shell is confident it has managed to make a “significant step change” with the latest blend without compromising on the previous version’s consumption levels. “Despite the freeze on engine regulations in F1 and F1 fuel regulations being the most strictly More…

Caterham has introduced its new F1 Performance Director, John Iley, with an interview on the Caterham F1 website. Iley is one of many established names to have joined Caterham F1 (formerly Team Lotus) since their re-introduction in to Formula One in 2010. He has a strong pedigree with stints as a senior aerodynamicist at Ferrari and Renault during their championship winning seasons among other credits. Following on from Mike Gascoyne and Mark Smith, Iley, who was confirmed as the squad’s Performance Director in December last year, will take up his role as head of aerodynamics and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) More…

Michael Schumacher said today that he is very pleased to have launched a debate on F1 about what kind of sport we want it to be; one where the drivers push to the limits or one where they have to manage the tyres. And in the paddock today the other F1 drivers have been giving their views on the discussion. The younger ones, who by and large have limited or no experience of racing on the Bridgestones used up to the end of 2010, say that they are quite happy to race on the current tyres. Others have mixed views More…

Thanks to everyone who sent in feedback on the new JA on F1 Connect news site. We’ve had a lot of interaction with you the readers and we’ve taken on board your comments. Many of you are viewing the site on mobile devices and we’re looking at how to optimise that. We’ve also picked a winner at random from the readers who left feedback, who will get two passes for the F1 Paddock Club at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. The winner’s name is below. JA on F1 Connect is the fastest way to get up to speed on the More…

McLaren is set to run with the higher nose it ran on the MP4-27 right at the end of the Mugello test in Spain this weekend, its team principal Martin Whitmarsh today revealed in a conference call with journalists, with the team also making changes to its pit-stop procedures in wake of the problems of recent races. Having bucked the trend for stepped noses seen elsewhere on the grid in the design of its latest car owing to its predecessor’s higher chassis profile, pictures from the final day of last week’s Mugello test appeared to show the Woking team’s MP4-27 running More…

[Updated] Last year’s Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona was widely heralded as one of the most exciting race finishes of the season, largely due to the way race strategies played out, with an intense battle for the lead in the final laps of the race between Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton. Vettel managed to hold on to take the win. However tyre degradation was very severe last year and after the recent Bahrain Grand Prix there were complaints from Michael Schumacher, as well as from many fans, that the racing is suffering from drivers not been able to push to More…

Jacques Villeneuve retraced his legendary father’s footsteps in a special event at Ferrari’s Fiorano test track today as he took to Gilles’s 312 T4 to mark the 30th anniversary of his death. As a team firmly in touch with its past, May 8 remains a date firmly ingrained at Maranello as the day Gilles Villeneuve, considered one of the most exciting and inspirational Formula 1 drivers of all time, was killed in a high-speed accident during qualifying for the Belgian GP at Zolder in 1982. Given Jacques never drove for Ferrari during his F1 career, and actually famously battled directly against More…

What is Mercedes’ place in Formula 1? Is it one of the great names of the sport, given that its cars were winning Grands Prix in the 1920s and 30s, before F1 was even invented? Or is is another flighty car manufacturer which comes and goes as it pleases and as the markets dictate and which was absent from the sport from 1955 to 1993? This question is at the forefront of people’s minds at the moment as the German manufacturer is at odds with commercial rights holders CVC and Bernie Ecclestone over its place in the sport and what More…

Today we are launching JA on F1 Connect, THE gateway to F1 news and social media. We hope it will prove to be a valuable tool for F1 fans and professionals alike as a one-stop shop where users can get a full picture of what’s going on in F1. See the latest news from all the major news organisations and F1 websites as well as the latest postings on Facebook, You Tube and Twitter, all in one place. Nowhere else can you take in all the latest F1 news and across social media platforms in one single visit to a More…

It’s been interesting to see how Fernando Alonso has started opening up much more to the public recently, clearly part of a move to address his image in the public’s eyes and to use the social media tools available today to build a better relationship – and a direct one – with fans. This weekend has has taken part in a widescale question and answer session with fans via his Facebook and Twitter accounts. For example Alonso only recently joined Twitter, one of the last of the leading drivers to do so. He now has almost half a million followers. More…

Caterham’s young American test driver Alexander Rossi has spoken of his pride in returning his country to the competitive Formula 1 field after the team confirmed he would make his debut at a grand prix weekend during next Friday’s opening practice session in Spain. While the sport’s lack of a United States Grand Prix since Indianapolis’s demise at the end of 2007, prior to the advent of scheduled new races in Austin later this year and New Jersey (2013), has been extensively documented, the lack of a top-line US F1 driver has been a perennial problem for several decades. The last American More…

Caterham technical director Mike Gascoyne has been awarded £400,000 in costs as the legal dispute between Force India and 1 Malaysia Racing Team (now known as Caterham, formerly Team Lotus) moved another step closer to conclusion today. In the original judgement in March, the judge found that a copyright infringement had taken place, but that it was not the ‘systematic copying’ which Force India alleged. He found that the windtunnel supplier Aerolab had misused Force India’s confidential information when Team Lotus was in a rush to design its first F1 car ahead of the 2010 F1 season. But he cleared More…

[Updated] “It’s very beautiful and the food is very good, but we are spending a lot of money and honestly we didn’t feel the need to come here,” said Red Bull boss Christian Horner when asked about the usefulness of testing at Mugello in Tuscany. Lotus boss Eric Boullier described the test as “money spent needlessly” while one of Mercedes’ senior engineers told Gazzetta dello Sport, “I wonder about the sense of having just one test session during the season. Either we do more tests or we forget it.” Mark Webber meanwhile said, “It would be amazing to hold a More…

Teams put the frustrations of poor weather on the opening day at Mugello firmly behind them today to get their test programmes underway in earnest, as Lotus’s Romain Grosjean and Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi ended up with identical times at the top of the timesheet. The second day of the sport’s first in-season group test since September 2008 at the picturesque circuit in Tuscany gave teams who have brought significant upgrade packages here a first serious chance to assess their performance in dry conditions. It was little surprise therefore to see numerous cars running with an assortment of aerodynamic-measuring sensors throughout the day. More…

Ferrari knows that it needs more points than it is scoring at the moment from its second car. Last year Felipe Massa scored only 45% of Fernando Alonso’s points tally. This season so far, described as make or break for Massa by both team boss Stefano Domenicali and Ferrari president Luca Montezemolo, Massa has 4% of Alonso’s points. And so rumours have begun to swirl again about the possibility of Ferrari hiring Mark Webber to partner Alonso on a short term contract. The story originated in Spain’s El Confidential, which claimed that the deal was already done and it has More…

The first day on in season testing since 2008 was a bit of an anti-climax today as heavy rain especially in the afternoon, spoiled the chance of much meaningful running or evaluation of development parts. Most of the running was done on either full wet or intermediate tyres. In the morning on a drying track the teams managed to cover some mileage, but in the afternoon the teams and drivers at Mugello in Tuscany competed only to see who could tweet the most graphic photographs of rain. At one point the cloud base was so low that the medical helicopter More…

Formula 1’s world champion team Red Bull is again giving fans the opportunity to have their picture feature on the livery of its RB8 at July’s British Grand Prix, in the latest initiative for its official Wings for Life charity. Both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber’s cars will run with special one-off liveries throughout the Silverstone weekend featuring a collage of faces which have been uploaded to the Faces for Charity website created for the campaign. To get their face onto the cars, fans have to make a €15 (£12) donation to the charity alongside uploading their photo of choice, More…

The new JA on F1 podcast is out today. This month, with a lot of talk about whether the F1 drivers are able to push to the maximum with the current regulations, we take a look at the wider subject of how to get the most out of an F1 driver. Very often you’ll hear that a driver “didn’t get the maximum” from a qualifying session or a race. So why does this happen? How do you avoid on-days and off-days, what are the secrets in terms of preparation, work with engineers and so on? Can a driver be allowed More…

The F1 teams are setting up in the garages of Mugello, near Florence, Italy today ahead of a three day test, which could prove something of a life saver for some of the teams who are in trouble at the moment. When it was announced that there would be an in-season test, for the first time since the Resource Restriction Agreement came into force at the end of 2008, it looked like it would be a very significant three days as it was the teams’ only chance outside of a race weekend; a chance to try development parts and to More…

The Sauber F1 team and Chelsea FC have announced a unique link up between two brands across two sports, designed to increase the reach of both into a new platform and to give added value to sponsors. Also with a shared platform across two of the biggest TV sports in the world, they can offer a joint sponsorship deal to a global brand looking for exposure in both areas. This is something Tony Fernandes has been hoping to achieve by owning both the Caterham and Queens Park Rangers teams. According to the Sauber statement, “In concrete terms, this (the deal) More…

Pirelli boss Paul Hembery has responded to criticism from fans and drivers that the tyres are too big a talking point in F1 at the moment, saying that the situation will resolve itself soon and the tyres will become less significant. This week has seen a flood of comment on this site and elsewhere following Michael Schumacher’s criticisms of the tyres in Bahrain. The 7 times champion said that drivers were unable to push to the limit on the 2012 tyres and added, “I just question whether the tyres should play such a big importance, or whether they should last More…

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo this week sat down with the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, for a two-hour meeting during a visit to the world famous Stanford University in California, where he was giving a lecture to students. The heads of two of the world’s most truly global brands came together for a lengthy discussion to chew the fat on their respective company’s ideas and visions, as well as sharing insight on strategy and management styles. Although the industries of racing and car production and consumer electronics and computers might seem far apart in many aspects, Montezemolo – who also More…

Formula 1 teams will get their first chance to complete in-season testing in four years at Mugello next week, but HRT has opted to skip the three-day session in order to prioritise the relocation of the team’s headquarters to Madrid. Since making its debut in 2010 the Spanish-backed squad’s appearances in official group tests have been fleeting to say the least with the team, aside from the end-of-season Young Driver sessions and the first Pirelli tyre test, only appearing in pre-season sessions over the past two seasons with what were by then year-old cars. HRT went into this season with the F112 on the More…

The Bahrain Grand Prix was another example of close racing with uncertain outcomes, dependent on race strategy, which has already come to characterise the 2012 F1 season. Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull became the fourth different car/driver winning combination in four races, showing not only how closely matched the teams are, but also how delicate the balancing act is in getting the strategy right on the Pirelli tyres. In just four races we have already had eight different drivers on the podium, more than in the whole of 2011. Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit provided the sternest test yet of the tyres, More…

There has been some movement in the future shape of the F1 calendar with confirmation from Bernie Ecclestone that from next year onwards Valencia and Barcelona will share a slot. And at the same time he said that a deal has been concluded for France to return to the schedule, in a deal alternating with the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. “The deal is done,” said Ecclestone. “We agreed the financial terms last Tuesday with the minster of sport, David Douillet. As soon as France is ready, we will sign.” The sign off for the French Grand Prix is clearly More…

In wake of Ferrari technical director Pat Fry’s recent frank assessment of the urgent need to change the “methodologies” used at the team in order to become successful again, Stefano Domenicali has now confirmed the process of making such deep-seated change is firmly underway – although stressed it would be a long-term project. Ferrari’s disappointing start to the season, which has happened despite a change in design philosophy for 2012, appears to have crystallised for the Maranello hierarchy the need to overhaul its fundamental approach to designing and developing F1 cars. Speaking on Monday, Domenicali, Ferrari’s team principal, said the plan was to More…

Pirelli have reacted to Michael Schumacher’s attack on their 2012 tyres, saying that other drivers “were getting on with the job and getting their tyres to work.” Schumacher suffered a frustrating weekend in Bahrain, with technical problems in qualifying relegating him to the back of the field. He took a tactical gearbox change, which moved him back to 22nd place and although he made a great start and had all new sets of tyres for the race, he only managed to finish 10th. “The main thing I feel unhappy about is everyone has to drive well below a driver’s, and More…

Red Bull Sebastian Vettel finally got his first victory of 2012 after being run close by the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen in an action-packed Bahrain Grand Prix. Who was your driver of the day? Sebastian Vettel After using the old-spec Red Bull in China, Vettel switched to the new package in Bahrain and looked strong in Friday practice. Almost got knocked out in Q1 and Q2 but got everything together in the shoot-out to take a shock pole position for the first time in 2012. Made a clean getaway and then pulled out a gap early on which allowed him More…

Sebastian Vettel produced a faultless drive from pole position to win the Bahrain Grand Prix ahead of the the two Lotus cars of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. This is Red Bull Racing’s first victory of 2012 and makes it four different winners in as many races this season. It was Vettel’s 22nd career F1 victory and his first of the season. He is the fourth different winner in four races. If Vettel’s pace in qualifying was a surprise, it was the Lotus’ performance on race day which caught the eye. Raikkonen, starting in 11th place, had a chance to More…

FIA president Jean Todt has carefully avoided making public comment on the security and political situation around this year’s Bahrain Grand Prix, leaving most of the talking to Bernie Ecclestone. However today he broke his silence to speak to the BBC and said that, despite widespread protests and a security scare for Force India mechanics, there had been no compelling reason to call the race off. There was, he said, “nothing (that) could allow us to stop the race. On rational facts, it was decided there was no reason to change our mind.” An activist has been found dead in More…

Sebastian Vettel claimed his first pole position of 2012 in Bahrain today as he made the most of two runs in the final part of qualifying to beat Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber in an eventful session. It was a day for not making any mistakes, particularly front wheel lock ups under braking and for getting the perfect lap as the soft tyres were only good for one lap. Vettel is the third different pole sitter in four races. It was his 31st career pole position. Red Bull has led just one racing lap in the first three Grands Prix More…

The first day’s running at the Sakhir circuit took place against in an edgy atmosphere as, for the first time in this Bahrain saga, events outside the circuit had a direct effect on the running of the Grand Prix. Force India decided not to run in second practice, to respect the wishes of their staff who have expressed concern about their safety travelling back from the circuit at night. They came under pressure to revise their decision over the lunch break, but clearly there is a lot of anxiety among team members, especially as there appears to have been a More…

Fernando Alonso is expecting the battle for the championship to distil into a much smaller group of protagonists than currently appears the case – and says that when that time comes Ferrari must ensure it is right in the fight. The pattern of the season’s first three races has mirrored that of 2010 when there were also three different winners from three different teams and a championship leader who had yet to win a race. Six different drivers have also stood on the podium so far in 2012, which is just one less than the total for the whole of last season. But Alonso, More…

The F1 paddock went about its everyday business today, media briefings, team managers’ meetings, all gearing up for Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton says that he’s a better man in 2012 for his difficult years, Sebastian Vettel says that he’s going to use the new specification Red Bull exhausts, Michael Schumacher says that Mercedes’ challenge is to hit the sweet spot on the race tyres, like they did in China. The Grand Prix is moving up into gear. Everywhere there are banners proclaiming that Bahrain is “UniF1ied”, while the slogan “back on track” is also evident. It’s quite surprising More…

There are quite a few unknowns going into this race weekend. Sakhir circuit has been modified from the 2010 event, without the extra loop, which was added just for that event. This means the track is shorter by just under a kilometer and four braking zones have been removed. The last time this layout was used there was still refueling in F1, so the strategy for this year will be completely new. With lots of corners following each other and a heavy car at the start of the race, Bahrain is one of the toughest circuits of the year on More…

Lewis Hamilton has spoken of his renewed happiness both on and off the race track after a start to the season which has taken him back to the top of the world championship standings for the first time in nearly two years. The tumultuous nature of Hamilton’s 2011 was well-documented with setbacks in both his racing and his private life contributing to his self-described worst year in Formula 1, but a productive winter allowed him the chance to re-focus and piece back together the ingredients he sees as being key to his personal equilibrium. Speaking to the British media in More…

Caterham F1 headed into 2012 looking to pick off from where they had left off last year, hoping to challenge the midfield runners and gain their first points. And although they are yet to see a clear positional step, the team believe there have been significant gains, particularly in race trim. Following some positive pre-season tests, which had indicated an improvement in reliability and single-lap pace, Caterham have had a mixture of results in the opening grands prix. A double DNF in Melbourne was followed by both cars reaching the chequered flag in Malaysia, however due to the conditions in More…

The UBS Chinese Grand Prix was a thrilling race, despite the comfortable winning margin for Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes. Race strategy was crucial to the outcome and we also learned a lot about how F1 has changed in 2012, with the field closing up on performance, so the top teams can no longer rely on building gaps over the midfield to drop nicely into after pit stops. The leading teams will have to work much harder than last year on creative race strategy and the drivers will have to do a lot more overtaking. During Friday’s Free Practice 2 More…

From the unexpected high of victory in Malaysia, the Chinese Grand Prix brought Ferrari back down to earth with a bump as Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa finished in ninth and 13th places respectively. The Maranello outfit may currently be in the process of accelerating developmental work on the F2012 in a bid to improve the difficult car’s competitive as quickly as possible, yet the team’s senior technical figure has admitted there are also more deep-rooted problems that need to be resolved if Ferrari is to enjoy sustained long-term success again. Pat Fry, who took the reigns of Ferrari’s technical department last More…

Nico Rosberg converted his first pole position in his debut win to give Mercedes their first win as a constructor since 1955 in a thrilling Chinese Grand Prix that saw a fast and frantic final 10 laps for second through to 10th. Who was your driver of the day? Nico Rosberg Pulled out what he called the ‘perfect’ lap in qualifying to secure his first pole position in 111 attempts and set up an all-Mercedes front row for the first time since the team returned to F1 in 2010. Made a clean getaway and then pushed to get a gap More…

Nico Rosberg joined the exclusive club of drivers who have converted their first pole position into their first victory with a dominant performance in Shanghai. It was Mercedes first win as a constructor since 1955. And it meant that team boss Ross Brawn has now won races as a senior manager with four different teams, a unique achievement. Rosberg produced a faultless drive and it gave him that elusive first win after one-hundred and eleven starts, and the first for the Silver Arrows since 1955. Rosberg completed the race twenty seconds clear of the McLaren duo of Jenson Button and More…

Mercedes will have an all Silver Arrows front row in tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix, the first time this has happened since their comeback as a constructor in 2010. Nico Rosberg took an emotional first F1 pole position, in his 111th Grand Prix, while Michael Schumacher moves up to join him on the front row after Lewis Hamilton is demoted five places on the grid tomorrow, from second to seventh, due to a forced gearbox change penalty. “It went really well and it’s a very special feeling,” Rosberg said. “Now obviously l am looking forward to starting first in the race! More…

Yesterday’s robust announcement from the F1 authorities and teams that the Bahrain Grand Prix will go ahead appears to have galvanised opposition and provoked a reaction on the streets of the Gulf state. A planned funeral march for Ahmed Ismail, a protestor who was shot by security forces last week, turned violent while there were strong words of condemnation from human rights groups and activists in the country. A report by AP for the American ABC network featured the following passage, ‘ “No F1, no F1. … They killed my son in cold blood,” sobbed Ismail’s mother, Makyia Ahmed, who More…

Michael Schumacher topped the time sheets this afternoon in the drier of the two practice sessions, but the indications from the long runs and analysis of lap times is that McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton is the man to beat this weekend. The McLaren driver has confirmed that he will have to move five places back on the grid from where he qualifies, due a forced gearbox change, but in terms of car pace he looked the fastest today. Hamilton set the fastest time in the damp morning session and then finished second behind Schumacher in the afternoon session, with the Red More…

The FIA has released a statement this morning, before the teams and Bernie Ecclestone have had their scheduled 12-30pm meeting, designed to stop speculation about the Bahrain Grand Prix taking place next week. After a long silence over the subject of Bahrain, this statement puts the governing body shoulder to shoulder with the Bahraini authorities and states in the clearest terms that the race will go ahead next week. The timing is interesting for another reason; in that region Friday is a day when protests typically take place after prayers, so there will be close attention paid to the reaction More…

Formula 1’s off-track focus in Shanghai may currently be trained solely on next week’s Bahrain Grand Prix and whether or not the Sakhir race will take place, but another race that appeared in serious jeopardy for very different reasons towards the end of last year – the revived US GP in Austin – marked an important milestone in the new venue’s construction on Thursday with a “topping off” ceremony for the pit building. Construction teams hold such symbolic ceremonies when they are ready to install support beams at the highest point of a building under construction and so, having reached that stage More…

[Updated] After two Grands Prix of phoney war and back room discussions, Lotus F1 came out and lodged a formal protest against the Mercedes F Duct front wing system in Shanghai. A hearing involving both teams took place at 17-15pm local time on Thursday in the FIA stewards’ room at the circuit. The stewards rejected the protest and Lotus has made it clear it will not appeal the decision. The system sheds drag from the front wing when the driver activates the DRS rear wing, by means of a pair of pipes which channel the air forwards through the chassis More…

[Updated] In the paddock at Shanghai today the talk is all on one subject: the Bahrain Grand Prix and whether it will take place next week. Although an emerging protest into the Mercedes front wing looks like it will soon take some of the spotlight off the politics. The Bahrain situation is now acquiring an acute feel to it, with many team members and media due to fly from Shanghai to Bahrain in little over 72 hours time. The teams are clearly very concerned about the event and looking to the FIA for leadership. FIA president Jean Todt will arrive More…

Group Lotus has moved to deny suggestions that it has ended its formal involvement in Formula 1, the sportscar firm revealing details of a “reshaped” arrangement with the Lotus F1 Team that has seen its owner Proton give the Enstone outfit a £30m loan. In an astonishingly strongly-worded statement issued by the British-based manufacturer this evening hitting back at what it claims have been “mistruths” concerning both its F1 involvement going forward and the wider situation at the company, Group Lotus sought to clarify its relationship with Lotus F1 and Genii Capital following Gerard Lopez’s comments at the end of More…

Formula 1 now has two female development drivers after Williams announced that experienced DTM campaigner Susie Wolff – the wife of team shareholder Toto Wolff – has joined the team. Several weeks after Marussia signed Spaniard Maria de Villota to a similar position, Williams has taken on the Scottish-born driver who has spent the last six seasons competing in German touring cars, achieving a best finishing position of seventh on two occasions in that time. The 29-year-old had previously raced in British-based single-seater categories including F3 and Formula Renault 2.0 and team owner Frank Williams said that in addition to More…

The Lotus F1 Team has tonight issued a statement clarifying the intention of a report from which quotes attributed to representatives of the team appeared in an official Bahrain Grand Prix press release earlier today, the Enstone team saying it had been meant for confidential use only. On a further day of frenetic reporting over the situation in the Gulf kingdom ahead of F1’s scheduled return next week, Sakhir organisers took the opportunity to go on the offensive in wake of the increasing stream of negative reports with race chairman Zayed Al Zayani claiming “scaremongering tactics” had created “huge misconceptions” over the More…

Ferrari technical director Pat Fry has revealed that the team has managed to accelerate some of the ongoing development work on the F2012 in time to bring five new parts to the car for this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, the Englishman believing the team need to find eight tenths of a second to get on par with the fastest team on outright pace. Although Fernando Alonso’s brilliantly opportunistic victory in Malaysia took him into a hugely unexpected early lead in the drivers’ championship after two rounds, neither driver nor team have attempted to mask the F2012’s continued underperformance in dry More…

There is a Grand Prix this weekend in China, but it’s the one the following Sunday in Bahrain which is dominating the headlines and looks set to dominate the agenda in Shanghai this weekend as well. One of the leading opponents of the Bahraini ruling regime yesterday predicted “violence” on the streets of the country if the Formula 1 Grand Prix goes ahead next week. Speaking in a discussion on BBC Radio 4′s PM programme, in which I also took part, Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, said, “I’m afraid that it will turn to violence.. More…

Ferrari has revealed plans to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of one of its most revered drivers, Gilles Villeneuve, next month with a special event at its Fiorano test track. The Canadian legend’s son Jacques, the 1997 world champion, will drive the 312T4 with which Gilles and team-mate Jody Scheckter contested the 1979 drivers’ title, the crown going to the latter by four points as Ferrari also won the constructors’ championship. The elder Villeneuve won three grands prix in that particular car – South Africa, Long Beach and Watkins Glen – and it was also the challenger he More…

Next weekend is the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai. Strategy decisions for this race are always on a knife edge; there are several ways to do the race, especially with the cars being close together on performance this year and with the two Pirelli tyre compounds also being close on performance. And after what happened in Malaysia, teams will be working hard in Friday practice to understand how the tyres are likely to perform on long runs and in qualifying. This year getting the right car set up to deal with both is proving very tricky, largely thanks to the More…

The use of the Lotus name in Formula 1 proved one of the most bitter and protracted sagas of recent times but a story that appeared to reach its resolution late last year has today taken a dramatic new turn with the revelation that the recently-rebranded Lotus F1 Team has cut all sponsorship ties with Group Lotus, little more than one season into a seven-year deal. Genii Capital co-owner Gerard Lopez, whose Luxembourg-based investment company owns the Enstone-based former Renault team outright, has told Autosport that the title sponsorship agreement that he signed with Group Lotus in late 2010 has More…

[Updated 9 April] “No one will enjoy the F1 in Bahrain with cries for freedom from the inside and outside of the race,” a protester in Manama told Associated Press today, as activists turned up the pressure on the Grand Prix, due to take place on April 22nd, to be called off. Protests have started to focus on the race itself with anti-F1 slogans and imagery graffitied on walls. On April 8th, according to the Financial Times, a group of youth activists called ‘February 14th Youth Coalition’, said “it would not be able to “ensure the safety” of Formula 1 More…

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn says that the team has understood why its qualifying and race performances have been so imbalanced this season and that he is willing to give up some qualifying pace to have stronger races. Mercedes has scored just one point so far this season from a potential maximum of 86, and trails McLaren by 54 points already. This is despite qualifying one car in the top two rows of the grid at both races. Mercedes issued a pre-race bulletin today with some findings from the first races, which showed that they were caught out by not More…

Adrian Newey, Formula 1’s foremost designer of the past two decades, was recognised on a national scale this week when he collected his OBE from the Queen at Windsor Castle. Red Bull Racing’s chief technical officer was recognised for his services to motorsport during a career that has seen him design multiple championship-winning cars for Williams, McLaren and now his current team. Newey had been honoured in the same New Years Honours List as Nigel Mansell – who took the designer’s Williams FW14B to the 1992 drivers’ title – the 31-time grand prix winner having received a CBE for his role as More…

Driver coaching may remain something of an untapped trade in Formula 1, but the next generation of drivers are set to benefit from an interesting new online initiative launched in America this week which will see some of the country’s biggest racing names lend their advice to up-and-coming stars. The SAFEisFAST.com website is run by the US-based Road Racing Drivers Club (RRDC), whose members are some of the most successful racing names from America and Europe such as Dario Franchitti and Chip Ganassi. The site is supported by a grant from the FIA Institute and already offers online video tutorials across the spectrum of More…

Over the past couple of weeks the majority of F1 teams have reached commercial agreements with Bernie Ecclestone to stay in the sport until 2020. Next will come a process by which other details of the next Concorde Agreement will be generated. One of the most important aspects of securing a stable sport will be agreeing the best method of cost control going forward. Ecclestone has been pushing recently the thorny subject of budget caps and it’s interesting to note that on the official F1 site today, Sauber CEO Monisha Kaltenborn endorses the idea. Kaltenborn says that the Resource Restriction More…

The HRT team has finally filled the void left by Geoff Willis following the Briton’s departure to Mercedes towards the end of last year by promoting chief race and test engineer Toni Cuquerella to the role of technical director. Cuquerella has been with the team since its turbulent early days as Campos in late 2009, the 38-year-old Spaniard having previously worked in F1 circles as a race engineer at Super Aguri before joining BMW Sauber, where he was engineer to Robert Kubica. Under his new role he will continue to lead the team’s engineering direction at the race track, but More…

Updated – After the messages of reassurance from Bahrain GP organisers this week and the show of the support from the F1 bosses and teams, events on the ground in the country this weekend have raised further questions about what might happen over the next three weeks as we count down to the scheduled race date of April 22nd. Protests this weekend saw a fatality as local militia shot dead a man who, according to a Reuters report quoting the man’s cousin, was “taking pictures of a demonstration when what he described as “militia members” in an unmarked car opened More…

Toro Rosso refugee Jaime Alguersuari has been hired as test driver by Pirelli, giving him a platform from which to try to return to an F1 cockpit in 2013. The 22 year old was dropped by Toro Rosso in mid December 2011, giving him no time to find a seat for the 2012 season. He has been working this season for BBC Radio 5 Live as my co-commentator and driver/summariser. Pirelli has also retained the services of Lucas di Grassi to provide a reference point from the tests conducted so far. According to Pirelli, “Both drivers will drive Pirelli’s latest More…

Lewis Hamilton got to see first hand the hardships faced by street children in Manila this week when he headed straight from the Malaysian Grand Prix to the capital of the Philippines to record a short film for UNICEF. The 2008 F1 world champion met some of the estimated 85,000 children who live and work on the streets in Manila, documenting his experiences in the Binondo area of the city in a film that will air during the celebrity football event Soccer Aid that raises money for children’s charity UNICEF and airs on ITV1 in the UK on May 27. During his two-day trip Hamilton More…

Just under a third of the Formula 1 calendar is now made up of races in Asia, yet Caterham’s Malaysian owner Tony Fernandes believes there is still scope for the sport to expand in that region of the world. Before Fernandes’s country staged its first grand prix at the then state-of-the-art Sepang circuit in 1999 Japan was the only established Asian round, yet 13 years on and China, Singapore, Korea and India all now also hold races in their own right. The rise of Formula 1’s presence in Asia has gone hand-in-hand with a gradual shift away from the sport’s traditional More…

Thanks to all the JA on F1 followers who downloaded the first podcast in February and for taking it to number 1 on ITunes in several countries, including the UK. The new podcast, Episode 2: March, is now available. This month with the new F1 season off to a great start with races in Australia and Malaysia and China up next, we take a look at F1 in Asia. With six races on the current calendar, why has the region become so important to F1? Is the sport managing to build a fanbase in Asia? And what is the best More…

Today at a lunch at the RAC Club in London the organisers of the Bahrain Grand Prix met with Bernie Ecclestone, several leading F1 team principals and journalists to discuss the forthcoming Bahrain Grand Prix. The message from Bahrain and from the F1 teams was clear: the race is on, despite continuing flare ups of protest in the country and rumours of impending cancellation which have surfaced from time to time during the first two Grands Prix of the season. Many of the people who work in the sport have privately expressed concern about the race taking place. The Bahrainis More…

Both the Ferrari drivers went back to Maranello from Kuala Lumpur for meetings and discussions about the first two races and the way forward. Interestingly Malaysian GP winner Fernando Alonso had two meetings with Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, a long one on Monday and another yesterday. Alonso participated in the ceremony whereby a flag is raised at the factory gate after a race victory, but while the Spanish driver’s stock is as high as it has even been within the team after winning a Grand Prix in arguably F1′s fifth or sixth fastest car, it has served only to More…

The Malaysian Grand Prix provided us with an exciting glimpse of what we can expect in 2012, from a racing and strategy point of view. We saw also a phenomenon which could provide the key to the season for whoever wins the title; the ability to be fast on all types of tyre in all conditions. Because judging from the Sepang race, even more so than Melbourne, all the teams are finding it hard to manage that. Hamilton, the pole sitter, for example, wasn’t particularly fast in any condition, while the Sauber was very quick on used intermediates and hard More…

Red Bull driver Mark Webber has been immortalised in a waxwork at the new Madame Tussaud’s which will open in Sydney in May. “When Madame Tussauds approached me about including me in their Sydney collection, I was rapt,” Webber said. “It was fun working with the team in London to make a second version of myself, particularly my varying five o’clock shadow. “I think it’s an incredible and accurate representation and I’m still amazed at how perfectly they matched everything, particularly my eyes, which is spooky.” Madame Tussaud’s has been producing lifelike waxwork figures for over 250 years. Initially the More…

Williams has been forced into another change of senior management after its chairman Adam Parr announced on Monday that he is quitting the team after over five years. The unexpected news was delivered early on Monday morning, with team owner Sir Frank Williams pointing to Parr’s desire to achieve “a better balance in his life” for the decision to cut his ties with Grove which stretch back to 2006. Former CFO of alcoholic drinks firm Diageo Nick Rose will take over as non-executive chairman with Parr’s leaving date set as this coming Friday (March 30). After joining the team as More…

Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez tore up the formbook at Sepang International as torrential rain caused havoc at the Malaysian Grand Prix. Who was your driver of the day? Fernando Alonso Arrived in Malaysia adamant that Ferrari had plenty of work to do despite an encouraging fifth place finish in Melbourne. Looked uncompetitive in first practice on Friday but improved when the team bolted on a new specification wing. Sneaked through into top 10 in qualifying and started eighth. Inherited the lead after the restart when the McLarens pitted and then pumped in the lap times on the intermediate tyres More…

Fernando Alonso produced a scintillating performance today, with the Ferrari strategists and pits crew making all the right moves, to win a rain hit Malaysian Grand Prix. The track has always been good to the Spaniard; he took his first pole position and podium here and has won the race twice before. But even he had to admit that he was lucky not to lose the victory in the closing stages to 22 year old Sergio Perez, who was challenging for the lead with seven laps to go but made a mistake, losing four seconds and giving Alonso breathing space More…

The physical challenge of driving in the Malaysian Grand Prix is often overlooked, because it’s not obvious to the spectator watching on TV. Now in its 14th year on the F1 calendar, Sepang has always been one of the toughest races of the season on drivers. With ambient temperatures of 32 degrees and 70% humidity, the drivers lose around 3 litres of body fluid in sweat. Since Singapore joined the calendar in 2008 that has established itself as the hardest and bumped Malaysia down to number two. I’ve heard drivers say that they are almost crying with pain in the More…

Lewis Hamilton grabbed his second consecutive pole position of the season at the Malaysian Grand Prix in a closely fought final shootout which saw the top eight cars covered by 0.4 seconds. Hamilton is joined on the front-row by his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button, making it consecutive races that they have locked out the front of the grid. But Hamilton knows only too well that it’s vital that he leads out of the first corner in the race and doesn’t get mugged by Button, as he did in Melbourne. The threat of the Mercedes was intense throughout the session as More…

Today Bernie Ecclestone announced that the “majority” of the current F1 teams have agreed a deal to stay in the sport, which will lead to a new Concorde Agreement starting next January. “I am very pleased to announce that we have reached commercial agreements with the majority of the current Formula One teams, including Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull Racing, about the terms on which they will continue competing in Formula One after the current Concorde Agreement expires at the end of this year.” This begs the questions, who is holding out and how many are in the majority? The More…

Free practice on Friday ahead of Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix showed that, once again, the McLarens remain the team to beat. But the Mercedes looks quick too and the Red Bulls’ long run pace hints at the threat they could pose on Sunday, as long as they don’t give up too much ground in qualifying. And after Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton’s opening round battle in Melbourne, we are set for another one here. In Melbourne Button set up his car with more wing than Hamilton’s to take care of the tyres in the race, while Hamilton took the pole. More…

Felipe Massa gave local drivers in Sepang pulling into their local petrol station the ultimate expert service on Thursday as the Brazilian turned pump attendant. As part of a promotional event for the Malaysian division of Ferrari’s fuel partner Shell, Massa appeared at the Yazn Enterprise filling station and was there to greet Ferrari road car drivers on the forecourt as well as competition winners who got the chance to meet the 11-time grand prix winner. “It is great to meet fans on a day like this. Shell works extremely hard with Ferrari to develop Shell V-Power for Formula One More…

As the paddock went about its usual work on the opening day of a grand prix weekend at Sepang on Thursday, there was also time for reflection as several drivers made poignant trips to the circuit’s turn 11 to pay tribute to Italian rider Marco Simoncelli, who was killed at the corner during the MotoGP race there last October. The Italian was considered one of the most exciting and charismatic riders on two wheels but his life was tragically cut short at the age of 24 when during the penultimate round of the MotoGP season in Malaysia he died following a horrific accident in More…

A judgement has come out in the Force India legal case against Caterham over alleged intellectual property theft – and both sides are claiming a win. Force India issued a statement this morning saying that the judge had found “Team Lotus (now known as Caterham) and Aerolab liable for copyright infringement and using confidential information respectively. Some parts created using Force India confidential information were used on the Team Lotus race cars in the early part of the 2010 season.” Force India has referred the judgement to the FIA, who fined McLaren $100 million for taking Ferrari Intellectual Property in More…

Ferrari is readying a new chassis for Felipe Massa to use in this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix in order to rule out the possibility of anything “unusual” happening with his F2012 in wake of his torrid start to the season in Melbourne. The Brazilian struggled throughout the three days at Albert Park for grip and balance, qualifying 16th and then suffering from severe tyre degradation in the race which eventually came to a miserable end following a collision with Bruno Senna. In the post-race media briefings Stefano Domenicali said the team would “need to stay close to Felipe because it’s clear More…

This weekend F1 is straight back on track for the second round of the world championship at Sepang in Malaysia. The teams will be dealing with a different kind of track, one with high energy corners, longer straights and one that punishes the tyres far more than Melbourne. This Briefing is designed to give you the readers a closer understanding of what the teams aim to get right when approaching the race in terms of preparation and strategy planning. Our Race Strategy Calculator has now been reset with Malaysia settings. This includes a sophisticated tyre model based on the performance More…

The Australian Grand Prix got the new season off to a great start and showed that the race strategy side is going to be as vital as ever to a good outcome. In this first Strategy Report of the year we will look at how Jenson Button was able to dominate the race by taking priority in strategy decision making at McLaren, while Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull used good strategy and a piece of opportunism with the safety car to steal second place away from Lewis Hamilton. We will also see how, for the second consecutive year, Sauber’s Sergio More…

Caterham may have got the season in which it is aiming to score its first Formula 1 points underway with a disappointing double DNF, and a five-place grid penalty for its lead driver at the next race, but the team has taken comfort from evidence which it believes suggests it can take on Formula 1’s midfield this year. Although the Malaysian-owned squad found themselves in familiar positions below the Q1 cut line in qualifying at Albert Park, technical director Mark Smith took heart from the race pace both Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov were able to display prior to dropping More…

Race day did not match expectations for the Ferrari team in Australia – it exceeded them. Fernando Alonso’s fifth place finish – essentially the position his Ferrari was in for much of last season in qualifying – was a very strong result from 12th on the grid. It is fair to say that the lowly grid slot was due to Alonso spinning off the track in Part 2 of Qualifying and he would probably have been more like seventh or eighth on the grid in a clean session. But Alonso’s result also put the spotlight on his team mate’s difficulties More…

Jenson Button got the better of his McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton in an entertaining season opening grand prix at Albert Park, Melbourne in Australia but who was your driver of the day? Jenson Button Began the weekend strongly, topping the times in first practice on Friday. Focused on setting the car up for the race in the next two practice sessions but still delivered an impressive lap in qualifying to make the front row alongside McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Made a good getaway to pass Hamilton into the first corner and then built a comfortable gap at the head of More…

Jenson Button won an dramatic Australian Grand Prix ahead of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, with Lewis Hamilton dropping from pole position to third at the flag. Hamilton was disconsolate afterwards, while Button was delighted having won the bragging rights within the team at the outset of the season. It was Button’s 13th career victory and his third here in Melbourne and it was all done at the first corner, where he dived down the inside of Hamilton to take the lead. He managed to survive a late safety car, which cut his 10 second lead to nothing, while Vettel and More…

If this is what the 2012 F1 season is going to be like, we are in for a very exciting championship. Today in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne the form book of 2011 was overturned as Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber struggled to get on terms with the McLarens in particular. Lewis Hamilton pulled out a tremendous lap early in the final part of qualifying to issue a ‘catch me if you can’ message to his rivals. Jenson Button did a very good second lap to get to just over a tenth of a second More…